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Thursday, February 28, 2013

Now, I pretty much knew from the get-go
that no one liked Flumphs but me. That's to be expected. However,
it's only been in recent years that I discovered people's strange dislike
for gnomes.

When I started playing AD&D regularly with Second Edition, there were a lot of cool gnome characters in our
games. The badass gnome assassin, the vagabond gnome bounty hunter,
and a variety of gnome illusionists and professor-bards. Maybe it's because we
were all Dragonlance fans, and we thought tinker gnomes were cool*.
Certainly the gnomes in Soldiers of Ice
were bad ass. Maybe Belwar in the Drizzt books was a
positive influence. I don't
know. Gnomes were just always welcome in our games. (Halfings, on the
other hand, got a lot of hate.)

So, I was dismayed a few years ago when
I discovered that so many people didn't like the little guys.

“They don't have any place in the
ecology or society!” I hear you say. “They're disruptive
pranksters!” you opine. “I hate their stupid noses!” you shout.

Well, we'll see about that. I've
declared the third month of 2013 shall be the March of the Gnomes
here at the Bernie the Flumph Show. I'll take a look at gnomes and
present some ideas on how to make them “cool” without changing
their intrinsic gnomishness. Stayt tuned!

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Over on the Dungeon World Tavern Google+ community, Patrick Henry Downs took the current version of my Artillerist class and put it into a groovy playbook form. It uses the Apocalypse World format instead of Dungeon World, but it's still wicked cool!

CHECK IT OUT!

Ooh! Also check out the nifty Gunlinger Compendium Class by Brian Engard. It borrows some ideas.

Monday, February 25, 2013

Spy Racers is here! Hex Game's new supplement for Sex, Lies and Ultraspies features rules for super-powered cars for your super-powered spies. I totally want to hack it to do a M.A.S.K. game. Robert McCabe wrote it. Jeffrey Johnson and James Hornsby did interior art. I did layout and cover art.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Somewhere in the Deep Down Bellow lies a series of twisting tunnels that spiral around a large central cavern. Within this central chamber stands a huge crystal spire. This weird monolith glows with an eerie blue light, while alien runes twist and turn under its surface. Goblins, Deep Elves, Knomes, and other underworld tribes constantly battle for control of the spire's chamber. No one know where the spire came from, but any wizard can tell you that it's a place of power.

I like guns in my fantasy settings. I just do. I'm also a fan of flying boats and crazy dwarf/gnome clockwork devices. There are steam trains in the lower tunnels of my dwarven kingdoms. Anyway, I decided I wanted to add some gunslinging to my Dungeon World game. The Artillerist is a combination of the Hunter from World of Warcraft, a fantasy alchemist, and any given Clint Eastwood character.This is just a first draft. I'm not 100% solid on some of the advanced moves. I'll repost this in the Dungeon World forums and Google Plus communities. Feedback is more than welcome!Also on Google Docs!

UPDATE: I've changed some things in the Google Doc after getting some great feedback. The Doc is up-to-date. The text bellow is not.

Artillerist

You gonna skin them smoke wagons or whistle Dixie?

Smoke and fire.
Thunder and metal. Lightning and chemicals. You are the next step in
the slayer's art. Let the others keep their swords and bows. Your
weapon cracks the sky and rains molten lead upon your foes. Wherever
you're going, Hell's coming with you.

________
has helped me tinker with my gun. They're smarter than they look.

________
has seen through to the inner me.

________
has made themselves a target.

________
needs to be taken down a peg.

Advanced
Moves

When
you gain a level from 2-5, choose from these moves.

Panzermench

You
ignore the clumsy tag on armor

Gunslinger

When
you Volley
and deal damage, deal +1d4 damage.

When
you Hack and
Slash
and deal damage, deal -1d4 damage.

Cover
Fire

When
you defend,
you can roll +DEX instead of +CON

Da'
Bomb

You
can use your alchemical skills to create explosive Bombs.

When
you have access to time and materials roll +INT

10+:
You make 2 bombs

7-9:
you make 1 bomb

On
a miss... BOOM?

Bombs
have a range of near
and the loud tag.
Each bomb has 1 weight. Volley
to hit your target. The bomb inflicts b[2d10] damage to the target
and anyone around them.

Rain
of Lead

When
shooting a monster with the horde tag, if you kill it, any left over
damage rolls over to another monster with the horde tag. With a high
enough roll, this damage can continue to roll-over to new monsters.

Gun
Katas

You
can protect yourself from harm with pattern of coordinated gunfire

When
you Defy Danger
with
DEX, STR, or CON, spend 1 Ammo to take +1 forward to the roll.

Eastwood
Eyes

When
you lock eyes with some one, roll +CHA

On
a hit, take +1 forward against them.

On
a 10+, you've also learned something about their true nature. Ask,
and the player will tell you truthfully.

Bad
Company

You
do not have to return triumphant to carouse.
You can celebrate your failures or wallow in misery and gain the same
benefits.

Mechanical
Improvements

Give
your gun another upgrade.

Called Shot
When you attack a defenseless or surprised enemy at range, you can choose to deal your damage or name your target and roll+DEX.

When
you gain a level from 6-10, choose from these moves or the level 2-5
moves.

Gunsmith

When
you have access to a lab and workshop, you
can graft the magical powers of a weapon onto your gun. This process
destroys the magical weapon. Your gun gains the magical powers of the
destroyed weapon.

Big
Badda Boom

Requires:
Da' Bomb

Your
bombs now do +1d6 damage and ignore armor.

Armor
Piercing Rounds

When
you deal damage with you gun, spend 1 Ammo. Your damage for this
attack ignores armor.

Soul
Reaper

Name
your target. If you kill them, take +2 on your next Last
Breath roll.
If unused, this benefit fades at high-noon. You can only name one
target per day.

Dedicated
Gunslinger

Replaces:
Gunfighter

When
you Volley
and deal damage, deal +1d6 damage.

When
you Hack and Slash and deal damage, deal -1d6 damage.

Constant
Innovation

Requires:
Mechanical Improvements

Give
your gun yet another upgrade

Tinkerer

When
you have significant downtime, you can swap out the upgrades on your
gun for new ones.

DemolitionistRequires: Da' Bomb
When you use one of your bombs to destroy an inanimate obstacle, roll+INT.
On a 10+, choose 2.
On a 7-9 choose 1

*It doesn’t take a very long time.
*Nothing of value is damaged.
*You can recover debris and explosive residue equal to 1 Ammo.

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Monsterhearts,
oh I love Monsterhearts. We've been playing Monsterhearts for several
sessions here at the Freehold, and it's been a blast. Our love of
supernatural drama mixed with our general dislike of teenagers has
let us orchestrate a glorious mess of sex, murder, betrayal, and
chaos. We invision the game as a screwed up TV show and informally
call the game The Sexy Teenage Monster Show.

Our
next session will be our season finale. We plan on continuing for at
least one more season. We're also going to do a spin-off series set
in college. One of my players is going to run that, so I can get a
chance to be a player.

So
here's how the Sexy Teenage Monster Show
sits right now.

Shermer
Heights, WV

The
Sexy Teenage Monster Show
is set in a small West Virginia coal-mining town named Shermer
Heights. The hills to the north are riddled with mines, some in use,
some long abandoned. Shadowy monsters lurk in the darkness of the
deepest mine. To the south lies thick, mostly unspoiled forest and
Adalwulf Lake. Train tracks run through the town, dividing it into
good (east) and bad (west) sides. The local teens enjoying hanging
out at the nice new mall, the crappy old strip mall, the skate park,
or Platinum, the way-cool teen club. The Shermer Heights High School
team is the Dire Wolves (“A winner is coming!”)

Caleb,
the Werewolf

Caleb's
family has been in Shermer heights for generations. One of the
founding families, they own most of the land in town and almost half
the town pays rent to them. Their long residence and interest in the
area has granted his family a powerful spiritual connection to the
land. Werewolfism is a genetic gift, running along paternal lines.
His parents are both werewolves, withhis mother belonign to a
different bloodline.

While
in control of himself, Caleb can take the form of a normalish wolf or
a balanced hybrid wolf-man form. But when he becomes his darker self,
the wolf takes over and he becomes a munderous horse-sized beast of
fangs and claws.

Caleb
has been working to build his spiritual powers. He can partially
enter the spirit plane and walk through walls, and can curse people
with hexes.

Caleb is in love with Lacuna, and has finally started
a relationship with her. He has teamed up with Gabriel on past
monster-hunting missions.

Lillith,
the Fae

Lillith's
mother was a low-caste fae who begat a her to a noble sidhe. Exiled,
Lillith's mother took Lilly to the mortal realm and started a life
for them both in Shermer Heights. Lillith's mother runs the Wolf
Whistle strip club. The club also functions as a kind of way-house
for traveling and exiled fae. Lillith and her mother make their home
in an old, overgrown gothic mansion deep in the woods. Lillith's
mother hosts all manner of weird guests.

Lillith
recently discovered that her father wasn't merely a fae noble, but
was in fact, the Faery King himself! Lillith is obsessed with Caleb,
and used her father's faery magic to disguise herself as Lacuna to
seduce him.

Lillith
has proven herself to be petty, spitful, and dangerously impulsive,
more than willing to sleep and murder her way into control. She
currently has several classmates bound to her by promises. He
favorite is “promise you will always protect me.”

Gabriel,
the Chosen

Gabriel's
family has recently advanced into a higher income bracket and moved
to the good east-side of town. They are respectable hard-working
people. Gaberiel has been marked by god for a higher purpose, and his
secret monster-hunting exploits are starting to bring unwanted
scandal upon his family. Gabriel has recently discovered that he can
come back from the dead, his wounds healed over with glowing angelic
script. This caused no small amount of confusion when he was dead
body was found in the middle of his school and taken to the morgue.

Gabriel is good friends with Caleb but has a massive and tragic
crush on Lillith. He sees Lacuna as his foreign-born sister.

Lacuna,
the (former) Angel

Lacuniel
was left behind. After the Creation, god left her trapped underneath
a mountain for thousands of years. He never told her why. She could
hear the mortals above her, but could never see or interact with
them. Recently, humans dug too deep into the mountain and freed the
angel in a flash of light. Her essence settled into the body of a
recently-arrived Spanish exchange student. She doesn't know what
happened to the poor mortal's soul.

Lacuna lives with Gabriel's
family. She can see God's imprint on Gabriel, and is obsessed with
finding out what it means. Since she is unfamiliar with human
emotions and interactions, Lacuna comes across as having massive
Asperger's Disease. She keeps notebooks about everyone she knows in
Shermer Heights.

Lacuna
recently discovered that her imprisonment under the mountain actually
served some purpose. Her presence kept the strange shadow monsters
there trapped safely under the earth.

In
the penultimate session, Lacuna apparently trespassed against God one
too many times. In a stroke of lightning, her angelic nature was
revoked, and she became Hollow.

The
Fectori

The
strange shadowy creatures from deep within the mines are responsible
for a number of murders plaguing the town. They are mostly shadow,
but have been gaining more and more physical substance with each
kill. They fear Lacuna the Angle, but are fascinated with Gabriel.
They desperately want Gabriel to become their new leader, their
“Chief-Priest” as they call him. They have offered him all manner
of gruesome aid and gift.

Dwimmerlaik,
the Faery King

Lord
and master of the alien Fae and Lillith's Father. He helped his
daughter seduce Caleb by gifting her with Medea's Veil, allowing her
to assume Lacuna's appearance. Dwimmerlaik has some unknown plans for
Caleb and wants Gabriel “removed” so he cannot interfere with his
machinations. He was unaware that Lacuna was an angel until Lillith
told him.

Previously
on The
Sexy Teenage Monster Show...

At
the end of our penultimate episode, Lillith, Lacuna, and Caleb were
naked and bloody in the forest, Lillith had turned on her father,
Lacuna had been smote down to mortal, a police detective had been
murdered and his body taken somewhere, and Gabriel was in bed with
his kinda'-sorta-not-really girlfriend.

Floomfs
are bizarre mutants that hail from another dimension. They possess an
anatomical makeup that combines elements of both animals and fungi and resemble leathery floating jellyfish with multiple tentacles and
two dexterous eyestalks that support black snail-like eyes. They float
through the air using psionic levitation and communicate with using
neural telepathy.

The
Floomfs' home dimension was conquered by the sinister Brain Lashers.
The Floompf's escaped to the Mutant Future world with the intent of
warning its inhabitants of the approaching Brain Lasher invasion.
Sadly, with society in a shambles and most people fearful of the
Floomfs' strange appearance, their warnings fell on deaf ears. Now
the Brain Lashers are here!

Floomfs
are peaceful creatures, given to quiet contemplation and scientific
study. They abhor violence, but when attacked, they can bring
powerful mental mutations to bear, as well as a paralytic venom.

A
Floomf will first attack by squirting a stream of paralytic green
slime. This attack has a range of 30'. If this stream hits, the
target must make a save vs. poison or be paralyzed for 2d6 rounds.

A
Floomf can also attack with its power Mind Thrust mutation. This
mental attack uses has a range of 50' and inflicts 3d6 points of
damage. It can be used every round. Floomfs are considered to have a
Will score of 15.

Once
per day, a Floomf can use it's psionic healing
mutation to heal itself or one creature it touches for 4d6 hp.

Monday, February 18, 2013

So, apparently a bunch of Goblins have been stealing sheep from the local village. The villagers can all tell us where the goblins' lair is. Doesn't seem too hard. Let's just take a quick hike over these hills and--HOLY $#!@ A SPACESHIP!

Some strange craft has crashed right into the goblins' hill-side lair. The old dungeon entrance has collapsed, but you can get in through a hatch in the side of the craft. Looks like the little blighters have started worshiping the radioactive power core. Those sheep outside don't look quite right, either.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

I went to BASHcon this weekend at the University of Toledo in Toledo, OH. It's not my favorite con, but it's only 15 minutes away from my home, and my son likes all the anime stuff.

I got a chance to run a game for some younger* friends of mine I don't see very often. Most were Pathfinder or D&D 4.0 players. I, on the other hand, had just bought the B/X D&D books at the con for a criminally low price (only five bucks per booklet!). I decided to show the kids what D&D used to be like, using a mash-up of B/X and Labyrinth Lord.

*And by younger, I mean 20-somethings.

SCORE!!!

I had them roll 3d6 for attributes, straight down the line in order. I also had them roll for Hit Points. This gave us some fighty-types with 2hp. To makes things a bit less tense, and to have some meat-grinder fun, I had them each make 3 characters. This gave us a team of 15--1 elf, 2 clerics, 3 dwarves, 3 thieves, 2 M-Us, 4 halflings, and NO fighters.

The straight rolls gave us some wonderfully diverse characters like Incindro the Magic User with a beefy 18 STR and a fragile 4 CON.

I decided to put the company through the first level of the ultra-nifty Dyson's Delve. It was decided that they were five independent adventuring parties that had grouped together and formed a guild called "the Doomed Knights" to explore the dungeon in search of adventure, glory, and gold.

The adventure went as well as I could have hoped. In the first encounter with a pack of giant rats, two characters were slaughtered in the first round, and two more were gnawed to death before the combat was over. A fine bloody beginning.

We kept a list of the dead on a "Scroll of the Doomed" in the middle of the game table. The players were always excited to list their fallen adventurer's name on the scroll, along with the cause of death.

Salklerik, killed by a Halfling named Scrotum. Both PCs belonged to the same player.

Through giant ferrets, goblins, and zombies, the PCs quickly learned the value of defensive lines, ranged attacks, and the liberal application of flaming oil. Whenever a player lost two of his characters, I let his remaining third PC advance to level 2. This created an interesting tactical decision for my players after their first character died. "Do I try and keep two first level guys alive, or do I kill this one and let this other one become 2nd level?" Sophie's Choice, man.

I sketched out the map as they explored. That's one explored dungeon!

We played for about five hours, and the party cleared out the entire first level. Everyone had a blast. The 4th Ed players were stunned by how fast combat went. Eight-or-so fights (with a ton of characters, no less!) in one session, as compared to maybe one or two. A friendly grognard at a nearby table told me afterwards how much he enjoyed hear people play old-style D&D again. He also remarked on how much fun it sounded like my players were having. That, I think, is the greatest compliment.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Flumphs are peaceful, inquisitive
aliens resembling leathery yellow jelly fish with dexterous tentacles
and expressive eye stalks. They float quietly though the air using a
form of natural air induction. The flumph language is comprised of a
mixture of tentacular body language and chemical signatures.
Communication with humans and similar species requires the assistance
of electronic translators or the Telepathy discipline.

Flumph society is peaceful and orderly,
with each flumph helping its neighbors in a kind of enlightened
socialism. Communities are led by members of a psychic priest caste
dedicated to the mysterious High Ones. Most flumph settlements are
Tech Level 4. They technology tends to focus on psychology , psionic
research, and exploration. Aside from their Pacification Rays,
flumphs are not known for their weaponry.

The flumphs were hit by the Scream as
badly as the rest of the galaxy, destroying the entire priest caste
in an instant. However, due to their cooperative, nonviolent culture,
flumph settlements generally didn't collapse into the chaos that
plagued human colonies.

Flumphs try to avoid combat if
necessary and prefer peaceful mediation. In seriously threatened, a
flumph can emit a steam of noxious ichor to temporarily disable
attackers. Psychic flumohs often carry a psitech Pacification Ray to
harmlessly deter opponents. Only in the most desperate of
circumstances will a flumph use the atavistic tooth-spikes hidden in
the center of their tentacles.

Flumph

Armor Class: 5

Hit Dice: 3

Attack Bonus: +2

Damage: 2d4*
Pacification Ray or 1d6 spikes

Number Appearing:
3d6

Saving Throw: 13+

Movement: 20' fly

Morale: 9

Any given flumph
has a 25% chance of having psychic powers and Psi Points equal to a
(1d8) level psychic, usually focusing on the Telepathy or Biopsychic
discipline.

Flumph
Pacification Ray (psitech)

Damage:
2d4*

Range:
30/60

Cost: 5000

Attribute:
Wis/Con

Tech: 5

*Like a stun
baton, damage from the pacification ray will leave a target
unconscious, but will not kill them. Unlike a stun baton, this damage
doesn't take the form of nerve pain, but as lethargy and fatigue.

The
Sludge Dwarves plumb the poisonous depths of the Deep Down Bellow,
mining, collecting, and refining the most noxious and dangerous of
alchemical substances under the earth. They sell these chemicals to
the various factions of the Deep Down Bellow as well as evil wizards
and alchemists on the surface world.

Sludge
Dwarves are thinner and more wiry than other dwarves, with greasy
green-black beards and hair. Their gray skin is mottled with scaly
patches and unhealthy purple lumps. Gritty brown slime perpetually
coats their clothing and gear.

The
sludge thrower is disgusting hand-held weapon connected by a hose to
a tank full of caustic alchemical ooze worn on the user's back. This tank holds enough ooze for 20 attacks. The sludge thrower has a range of 50/100/150. A character hit by a blast from
the sludge thrower takes 2d4 damage and must make a save vs poison. Failure indicates that
the character has contracted a debilitating disease that will reduce
the victim's maximum hit points by half and reduce their Strength and
Constitution score by 4. A sufferer can make another save vs. poison
each week to overcome the disease. A cure
disease
spell will instantly remove the infection.

Sludge
Dwarves do not have the resistance to magic that other dwarves
possess. However, they have developed a total immunity to all poisons
and diseases. Sludge Dwarves have advanced infravision that extends
120'

Any
group of 20 Sludge Dwarves will be accompanied by a boss
whose level is determined by rolling 1d6+2. In the presence of a
boss, Sludge Dwarves have a morale of 10.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Allow me to present to you the masters of this Monday's mini-map, the foul Sludge Dwarves, all statted out for Dungeon World!

Sludge
Dwarves

Cautious,
Intelligent, Organized

Sludge
Thrower: (1d8 damage) close, near

6
HP

3
Armor

The
Sludge Dwarves plumb the poisonous depths of the Deep Down Bellow,
mining, collecting, and refining the most noxious and dangerous of
alchemical substances under the earth. They sell these chemicals to
the various factions of the Deep Down Bellow as well as evil wizards
and alchemists on the surface world.

Sludge
Dwarves are thinner and more wiry than other dwarves, with greasy
green-black beards and hair. Their gray skin is mottled with scaly
patches and unhealthy purple lumps. Gritty brown slime perpetually coats their clothing and gear. The sludge thrower is
disgusting hand-held weapon connected by a hose to a tank full of caustic ooze worn on the user's back.

Far into the Deep Down Below, the foul Sludge Dwarves operate their refinery. In the poisonous depths they harvest noxious alchemical materials from the river of slime that bubbles up from a pustule in the earth. But all is not well, as cast-off mutant casualties of the toxic trade have had enough of their former masters.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

I've been a big fan of John Wick's
Houses of the Blooded RPG ever since it came out. In fact, I went to
my first Gencon in 2008 just to purchase it. Dude signed it and
everything.

I only got to play it a couple of times
(with my wife and her gal-pal playing a wicked pair of evil twins),
but it was great smoky fun. As is the way of things, my interest in
the game waxed and waned over the years as time passed and new games
came and left my radar.

But I'm all excited about HotB again.
Wanna know why? Because this thing came in the mail this morning...

We already had the skulls.

Yup, that's the paperback version of
the new Wilderness supplement
by Jesse Heinig. I backed the Wilderness Kickstarter
(because I will back just about anything that John Wick Kickstarts)
and today I got my dead-tree copy in the mail, plus a nifty new patch
to put on my hipster-gamer messenger bag.

I
haven't had a chance to read it thoroughly, but I have flipped
through it, scanned passages, and read bit and pieces that grabbed my
immediate attention. This here is my “Flip-Through Review” of the
book.

I'm
used to print-on-demand books at this point, and Wilderness
is pretty high-quality. It's in the 9”x6” format that I prefer
these days. The cover features dark text on a dark leather
background, like a beast hiding in shadowed camouflage. The claw
marks remind me of Werewolf:
the Apocalypse,
so take that as you will. The paper is a nice light beige color that
gives the thing a “old and feral” feel and is of a decent weight.
The black ink is a bit shiny in places, though. Sadly, some of the
wonderful ork illustrations that look great in the PDF come out kind
of muddied in print. That's PoD for you.

Flipping
through, let's see what's in this thing. We have a new house, the
Boar, with it's virtue of Tenacity. That will be a nice addition to
the Horse in Josh Roby's Coronets
but Never Crowns.
The Boar are grungy mountain men living independently in the
wilderness. Nice.

We've
also got some new wilderness regions for your provinces, including
volcanoes. Volcanoes! They cause a lot of trouble in your lands, but
you can use them to harvest gems, smelt metals, and collect obsidian.
Obsidian's useful for demonology. Wait, what? Demonology?

Yeah,
demonology is in here too. Learning to summon demons is wicked easy
but carries a hefty price. A first glimpse of the demons of Shanri
remind me of the demons in Sorcerer.
You summon them, you ask them to do something, they do it, trouble
happens.

We've
also got rules for unblooded adventuring parties. The aspects system
in HotB lets these commoner troubleshooters take on the classic
tropes of fighter, thief, wizard, etc. with a Ven twist. The book
also talks about unblooded adventurers that toil and fight their way
to nobility, becoming blooded “dirt nobles.” We've also got some
stuff in here about the hedge magic used by commoners.

And
then there's orks. So much information about the monsters of Shanri.
We have new ork powers. We have write-ups of various ork species,
including my favorite pulp villains, Serpent People. We have rules
for ork vassals, and (holy katz!) rules for ork player characters. I
thought the HotB core book was lacking in ork information. This book
certainly seems to remedy that.

We've
also got some new evil Suaven, including Mahl, Mother of Monsters,
who's wicked awesome creepy.

The
HotB core book has often been criticized for its poor organization
(and I would sadly agree). Wilderness
seems much better organized. The ork stuff is all in the ork section.
The unblooded stuff is all in the unblooded section. Etc Etc...

I'm
excited to have this book in my hands, and I can't wait to read it
thoroughly. It's a fine looking book and, most importantly, it makes
me want to play Houses
of the Blooded again.
Even with just a quick flip-though, I've already got a lot of ideas
to drop into a HotB game.

A
dirt-noble tries to arrange a good marriage between her son and one
of the PC's daughters.

--The flumph's alien innards allows it
to produce a variety of chemicals that it can excrete or spray in
self defense. Usually this either a noxious, nauseating slime (target
must roll Nerve vs. the flumph's Gimmick to do anything but retch and
vomit for a number of rounds equal to the difference in rolls), or a
spray of corrosive acid (roll Gimmick to hit, with a Damage Bonus of
+4).

Weakness: Pacifist (12)

--Unless it is physically wounded, if
the flumph wants to attack a living creature, it must make a Weakness
roll. If the roll succeeds, the flumph cannot bring itself to attack.

Skills:
Healing +3, Meditation +2, Space Lore +1

Flumphs are
strange alien creatures that resemble slightly-flattened, floating jellyfish with rubbery yellow-green hide, dextrous tentacles, and inquisitive eyestalks.
They speak the languages of Earth in whispery sing-song voices. Since
their home planet, Flumphsylvania, was destroyed in an intergalactic
war 3000 years ago, flumphs have been cast adrift into the universe,
looking for a new home. A small rocket ship carrying a coterie of
flumphs crashed outside Waldo, Ohio in 1897. They have done their
best to make a new life for themselves ever since.

Despite their
bizarre, inhuman appearance, these aliens are peaceful and friendly.
They prefer a life of quiet, religious contemplation away from the
prying eyes of humanity. Small groups of flumphs will use their acidic excretions to carve out swirling underground caverns of alien design
and form small “monasteries” dedicated to the High Ones.

Flumphs in Hobomancer:
As cosmic drifters without a home of their own and a mystical
disposition, flumphs feel a particular empathy with the hobomancers.
They can use their “Alien Priest” Job to tap into the songlines
and perform acts of ritual magic. If they can earn their trust, a
group of flumphs could make powerful allies to a crew of hobomancers. Hobomancers refer to flumphs as "Flying Flapjacks."

Flumphs in M-Force:
Flumphs
as a whole do not represent a threat to humanity, and are not listed
on the government's Official Monster List. A flumph's knowledge of
the horrors of outer space might prove useful to the right M-Force
office.

Flumphs
in Fort High:
Flumphs reproduce asexually, but they still have offspring. In an
attempt to adapt to human culture, many flumph's send their spawn to
Paradigm schools, where they tend to excel at math and chemistry.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

The Lair of the Crimson Necromancer was pretty well received, and it got some people asking for more information about the Skull Witch. When I initially drew up the map, I didn't have any solid idea about who the Skull Witch was, I just thought the name was evocative. Of course, it's up to individual GMs to develop her as they see fit, but here's the Skull Witch as I envision her. Stats for Dungeon World!

The Skull Witch

Intelligent, Magical, Solitary

Evil Eye: (1d10 damage, ignores armor) close, near, far

16 HP

4 Armor

The Skull Witch (her true name is lost to history) was a foul sorceress in Times of Old. Upon her death she was rejected from Death's kingdom for being too unpleasant. She eventaully became mentor and lover to Radmanthus the Crimson Necromancer. When the necromancer was destroyed in his failed attampt at lichdom, the Skull Witch was heart-broken. Now she resides Radmanthus's former sanctum, lamenting her lost love and lashing out at interlopers.

The skull witch is always attended by her collection of flying skulls.

Instinct: To bring misery.

Bind nether-spirits to her will.

Curse with a word.

Tear your skull right out of your head!

Flying Skulls

Horde, Tiny

Gnasty Gnawing Teeth: (1d6 damage) hand, messy

7 HP

0 Armor

Special Qualities: Flying

After the Skull Witch removes the skull of a victim, she binds into it a foul spirit from the Darkest Nether. The skull gains an evil cunning and vicious temperament Flying skulls will swarm the Witch's enemies, biting, gnawing, and tearing at them with sharp, hungry teeth.

Monday, February 4, 2013

It's
interesting where game ideas come from. Most recently I found the
seeds of adventure and setting in the form a song, specifically
“Night City” by The Sword.

Running
scared through endless nightToo
afraid to put up a fightThey
shackle her wristsIt's
too late to resistScanned
for weapons and transmittersSold
at auction to the highest bidderThat's
the way it goesNow
you know...You
can find us on the Night-sideIn
the shadows where the killers and the pirates hideCome
around if you think you can survivein
the city on the Night-side

It's
a fairly basic story of a kidnapped princess sold into slavery, but I
found it nicely evocative. Also the song's just bad-ass. This weekend I ran a Stars Without Numberone-shot, and when I
needed an adventure idea, this song gave me enough seed ideas to work
with.

So...
The PCs are low-ranking members of the Red Banner Mercenary Company.
The debutante daughter of a VP of Titanomachy Technology was
kidnapped by pirate slavers while on a pleasure cruise. She's been
listed for sale at a slave auction in Night City, an outlaw human
settlement on Las Diablas. The PCs need to rescue here by any means necessary, while keeping Red Banner's name out of it.

Las
Diablas is a desert badlands planet. Because of the tilt of its axis,
the northen pole is in perpetual night. It's the home to killers,
outlaws, smugglers, pirates, and slavers. It's pretty much an equal
mix of Deadwood, Mos Eisley, and Bartertown. A nice dangerous place.

When
the PCs landed outside of Night City, they (half-jokingly?) insisted
that I draw a map of the town. (“You said it was small. You can
draw that!”). They've been spoiled by Monsterhearts,
where we keep drawing the map of their town as we play. But no
worries, we took a break, and I drew up a quick map. Couple of roads, market here, power plant there,
slave market here, lots of spaceships parked around the perimeter.
“There should be an arena,” said a player. Oh hell yes, we need a
Thunderdome... right here!

The City on the Night Side!

The
adventure itself was fun. As I do nowadays, I didn't have any preconceived idea on how the heroes were supposed to complete the adventure. I came up with a situation, I decided what the major NPCs wanted, and I figured out what would happen if the PCs did nothing. That's all I need to drop the PCs into the action and let them figure out solutions for themselves.

I wasn't disappointed. The PCs went undercover as a couple
of rich rubes and their bodyguards, looking to buy slaves. After
discovering that the debutante had already been sold to an infamous
gang boss (Magnus Thorn), they are forced to fast-talk their way into
the boss's manse, then rescue the debutante in a running gun battle.

Some
highlights...

The
Stars Without Numbers mechanics are dead simple, and combat
is wicked fast and tense!

The
female engineer disguised herself as a pregnant woman, hiding guns
and grenades in her fake boobs.

The
noble-born psychic-healer with no combat skill disguised as a
bodyguard and loaded down with weapons he can't use.

Wheeling-and-dealing
with the alien slave-broker to purchase the other survivors from the
debutante's kidnapped party.

Smooth-talking
Magnus Thorn's Hochog lieutenant into letting them to have one of
their women fight in Thorn's gladiator ring, thus getting an
invitation to the manse.

Ignoring that plan and purposely(?)
getting captured to get themselves into the heart of Thorn's manse.

A
running gun battle, punctuated by blowing up an elevator with
grenades, and exploding badguys' heads with the psychic's
cancer-gun.

Making
it to the roof and having the engineer hack into the manse's defense
towers, blowing away opposition with cannon-fire.

A
successful rescue as the PCs ship (The Private Dancer)
flew them back into space.

We may very well come back to Stars Without Number after we're done with Monsterhearts.

When Radmanthas the Crimson Necromancer failed (spectacularly) at his attempt to become a lich, his undead minions took up residence in his cliff-side estate. Guard towers and baroque statues flank the entrance to the columned antechamber. An underground river leads to a whirlpool where Radmanathas drowned villagers in sacrificial rites.

(EDIT: I somehow accidentally deleted the map from Photobucket. Consider that problem fixed!)

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Tim Snider over at The Savage Afterworld has started a new meme. Most people who have a room dedicated to gaming has a variety of interesting decorations on their walls. This decor offers an interesting insight into the people who spend while away their hours exploring imaginary worlds in these rooms.

My game room was supposed to be a dining room, but we never eat at the table, so it's pretty much become a dedicated gaming room. Ivy (my wife) can't stand bare walls, so she made certain the room was filled with "cool things." There's a lot of shelves, knick-knacks, and crafts hanging on these walls--the flotsam and jetsam of a pack-rat's life.

This is a papier-mache lion mas my sister made for a play. It always gets a lot of attention when new people come over.

Ivy collects masks of various styles. She especially likes these kind of Mardi-Gras looking ones. We have them scattered all over the house. These are a few hanging in the game room.

The cats came from different parts of Asia and Africa. The benefit of the Internet is that we've made friends all over the world. When they go to cool places, they send us stuff. The cat on the left was from a friend who went to Kenya to study birds. I purchased the Captain America sculpture from a guy at SPACE who sold these awesome/adorable hand-made superhero models. I love it.

This is the Egyptian corner. The papyrus prints on the right I got from my mom, who got them from her old boss, who wa from Egypt. The little brass camel and incense box are things my grandparents picked up on their honeymoon in Egypt. And that little maquette of Dante Hicks in the center? Well, he's not even supposed to be here today.

"Thanks for visiting!"

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Who I Am

I am a long-time gamer who enjoys both new-style story games and old-style OSR stuff. I love drawing maps and goofy monsters. I help write, layout, and illustrate games for Hex Games, and I keep taking stabs at creating webcomics with mixed results. I talk about RPGs (and other things) at my Bernie the Flumph blog.